TOS: Yeah Kirk is my favorite, though Spock is often very close. Admittedly, some of this the typical guy thing of "this guy gets all the women, carries himself with poise, is smart AND has a swagger about him?! Can I have what he's drinking?"

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You see, that's the difference between the male and female response to the character of Jim Kirk. See the scene between Jadzia and Sisko in Trials and Tribble-ations, that said it all. Men are usually like: "Ooh, he gets all the women, he is a god, I want to be like him!" and most of the women are like: "Kirk? Who? Ah, the guy with Spock?... oooh, Spock "

OK, I know, I know... There are also plenty of women who do like Kirk. But trust me, his irresistibility is vastly overrated.

But this is really why I never could really warm up to Kirk in TOS... he struck me more as a male fantasy of what they'd like to be, than a real person and someone one could relate to. He got much better in the movies, though, when he was allowed to show that he was not perfect and to be more realistic and human.

In TOS, Spock was my favorite by far - he is at least 60% of the reason why I like TOS, and Spock-centric episodes in which we got to see his inner conflict and his emotional self that he tried to suppress, were always highlight of the show. McCoy was also great, and I have to say I always had a soft spot for Uhura and felt that she should have gotten better treatment by the writers. Kirk was not even close to being my favorite (he fares much better in the movies, as I said - in the movies, he is my favorite next to Spock.

TNG - this may be the only Trek show where the captain has a shot of being my favorite - or one of my two favorite main characters. In the end, Data is probably my favorite on TNG, but Picard is close, only because Patrick Stewart is such a great actor. Thing is, I have a love/hate relationship with Picard... well, maybe like/dislike more than love/hate. He epitomizes the best and worst of TNG - the worst being that holier-than-thou attitude that always put me off while watching TNG. However, Stewart managed to elevate every episode and scene he was in, and to give Picard real depth and make me relate to him nevertheless.

DS9 - Sisko is my favorite captain. I prefer Stewart to Brooks, but I like Sisko better than Picard, and certainly better than the other 3 captains. However, Sisko is not my favorite on DS9, because DS9 had so many great characters, and there were some others I loved more than Ben. If I made my top 10 Trek characters, the first 6 or 7 places would consist of Spock and a bunch of DS9 characters. Kira was always my favorite, followed by Odo, Dukat, Garak, and then Quark and Sisko.

VOY - I don't hate Janeway and I don't love Janeway - I'm just indifferent to her. Which is pretty much how I feel about the show itself. Generally, the VOY bunch are a bit bland for me. My favorite characters are The Doctor, Tuvok and Seven. Tom and B'Elanna are OK but nothing special, and Janeway is there somewhere - not the best of the bunch and not the worst (that would be Neelix, Chakotay and Kim).

ENT - I hated Archer the first time I watched the pilot. After I decided to give the show another chance, I found he didn't bother me that much. He can be a real moron, but at least he has flaws and isn't written to be perfect, and I'm starting to kinda like him. But I'm still in season 1, so it's too early to tell which characters I'll like the most.

TOS: Spock or McCoy--Kirn was an arrogant womanizer in my opinion. This goes for both version of Kirk.

TNG: I used to like Picard, but now I flat-out despise him. He's just a holier-than-thou ideological mouthpiece. Of the TNG crew, I can't say I really LOVE any of the characters, but Data was pretty interesting.

DS9: Sisko I generally like a LOT. He gets edged out by Kira and Gul Dukat, but BARELY. He's the best captain of the bunch, though!

VOY: Ugh, Janeway. Not written as a consistent, competent commander at all. The Doctor is a more interesting character, I think.

ENT: Archer was badly, badly miscast. And I really hate saying that because I adored Scott Bakula, but I think the man is much better cast in "softer," more "emotional" roles like on Quantum Leap, or kids' movies (both of which I loved him in). He doesn't have sufficient gravitas to come off as a credible captain. As for the other characters of ENT...well, I checked out sometime in season 2, so I can't really say that anyone else stuck out. (If I rewatched Seasons 3 and 4, maybe I'd change my mind...dunno.)

TOS: I love Kirk, he was a package deal. Love the back story built for him at the starfleet museum site.

TNG: Patrick Stewart is the best actor, both Worf and Data grew the most. The longer we saw Worf, in both TNG and DS9, the more interesting he became. There as something about Riker in the first season, like he just might push Picard out the airlock.

DS9: Sisko just came off as a ass. Continuation of Worf being best. The relationship between Odo and Kira was nice.

VOY: Kes in the begining, I felt she was a strong presense on board. Later Seven, like Data she grew and changed. I see Janeway as someone who was experiencing psychological problems from the stress she was under, this accounts for her inconsistency.

ENT: For me ENT was always about Tucker and T'Pol. Their relationship and watching it grow - that was the A story, that weeks episode was the B story. I don't dislike Archer as much as some, in my eyes he's suppost to be incompetent, viewed as that viewpoint the character makes perfect sense.

I do admit, though, I have a fantasy of seeing what Marc Alaimo would do if given a true good-guy role to play...

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Somehow I had a feeling you would say that...

You're not the first to suggest that on TrekBBS, and it's a really interesting idea, but I'm not sure if it wouldn't have been weird - Trek does recycle actors a lot, but his voice is so recognizable, plus he spent a lot of season 7 practically without makeup. :-/

But anyway, why not give the man a big, substantial good guy role for once? Maybe even (shock! surprise!) as a human? Stupid typecasting. Do you know what they offered him on ENT, as far as I've heard? A Nausican on "Fortunate Son" which he turned down because there's even more makeup than for a Cardassian, but if you've seen the episode, you know that both Nausican roles in the episode are bleh, pretty much anyone could have played them. I'm guessing it was the captain, an antagonist speaking over the comm link - been there, done that. Of course he declined. No need to bother with getting into that makeup for those kind of roles.

What would be really remarkable, in my opinion, would be to see how drastically he could change his entire tone and demeanor. He always seemed to have very exacting control over both, and I suspect he could very easily project a different sort of character if he wished.

One thing that's really remarkable is just how much a different demeanor can change a person's appearance. For instance, I have even seen some screenshots of Dukat that are virtually unrecognizable at first due to the change in demeanor that he has in his few "good" moments.

Also, to give you an idea of what I picture as this AU Archer's basic look and demeanor, I found this pic of Marc Alaimo that is amazing for how different it is from how Dukat carried himself...

There are more other characters than captains, so it's normal that the captain might never be your favorite.

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Perhaps. Although, considering they tend to get more screentime than the others, you'd think that they would at least rank higher on my list. Captain Kirk is the only one that even broaches the top 3.

On a good day, Captain Picard would be 4th on the list, behind Commander Riker, Data, & Worf. On bad days, he sinks to 7th, behind Geordi LaForge, Beverly Crusher, & Guinan.

Captain Sisko was a great character. But DS9 was so flush with great characters, Captain Sisko finds himself in 2nd to last place. (The perplexing main character status of Jake Sisko is the only thing that keeps Ben out of the cellar.)

Most days, the only good thing I can say about Janeway is, "Well, at least she's not as useless as Neelix."

Captain Archer never gets any higher than 5th place for me, and that's only because Travis Mayweather never got any screentime and I can't stand T'Pol. (She was too cranky to be a good Vulcan and not nearly as sexy as the marketing people seemed to think she was. Give me Hoshi any day.)

TOS: Yeah Kirk is my favorite, though Spock is often very close. Admittedly, some of this the typical guy thing of "this guy gets all the women, carries himself with poise, is smart AND has a swagger about him?! Can I have what he's drinking?"

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You see, that's the difference between the male and female response to the character of Jim Kirk. See the scene between Jadzia and Sisko in Trials and Tribble-ations, that said it all. Men are usually like: "Ooh, he gets all the women, he is a god, I want to be like him!" and most of the women are like: "Kirk? Who? Ah, the guy with Spock?... oooh, Spock "

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Yeah, I can see how that might be...though I imagine a LOT more women than you imagine might melt under the inexorable swagger of the Kirk....heck, I might lose myself for a moment lol.

DS9: It's ironic, that despite the shows' conscious attempt to do things different than its predecessors, I still wound up liking the shows' big three - Odo, Kira and Sisko - the most.

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I wasn't aware that DS9 had a big 3, certainly not in the same way that you had Kirk/Spock/McCoy on The Original Series or Archer/T'Pol/Trip on Enterprise.

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You're correct in saying that DS9 did not have a Big Three in precisely the way that TOS or ENT (or even , but it's incorrect to say they didn't have a Big Three. DS9's characters arcs were partly written as parallels to what went on with specific worlds within the show - Earth, Bajor, Cardassia, The Klingon Homeworld as well as The Federation and The Dominion - as well as overall themes the show chose to explore. No three characters experienced as much in that respect, and affected as much, as Sisko (connected to The Prophets/Bajor, Geopolitical twists and turns, Fed policy, Family issues, etc) Kira 9Bajor/Cardassia, exploration of faith,resentments and enmity, how one overcomes that, etc), and Odo (the primary "other" character, underwent the most self-revealing and learning, explored how "justice" is served, xenophobia, connected to Dominion, etc.).

To be honest, as much I love DS9, I find that this idea that DS9 had no real central characters (as if ensemble cast meant every character were of equal importance, or equally affected the series), and that there was no Big Three, more of a provisional truth that is exaggerated by fans to emphasize how different DS9 was/is than other Treks.

DS9: It's ironic, that despite the shows' conscious attempt to do things different than its predecessors, I still wound up liking the shows' big three - Odo, Kira and Sisko - the most.

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I wasn't aware that DS9 had a big 3, certainly not in the same way that you had Kirk/Spock/McCoy on The Original Series or Archer/T'Pol/Trip on Enterprise.

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You're correct in saying that DS9 did not have a Big Three in precisely the way that TOS or ENT (or even , but it's incorrect to say they didn't have a Big Three. DS9's characters arcs were partly written as parallels to what went on with specific worlds within the show - Earth, Bajor, Cardassia, The Klingon Homeworld as well as The Federation and The Dominion - as well as overall themes the show chose to explore. No three characters experienced as much in that respect, and affected as much, as Sisko (connected to The Prophets/Bajor, Geopolitical twists and turns, Fed policy, Family issues, etc) Kira 9Bajor/Cardassia, exploration of faith,resentments and enmity, how one overcomes that, etc), and Odo (the primary "other" character, underwent the most self-revealing and learning, explored how "justice" is served, xenophobia, connected to Dominion, etc.).

To be honest, as much I love DS9, I find that this idea that DS9 had no real central characters (as if ensemble cast meant every character were of equal importance, or equally affected the series), and that there was no Big Three, more of a provisional truth that is exaggerated by fans to emphasize how different DS9 was/is than other Treks.

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Well, DS9 was an ensamble show - although, technically that is true of any Trek except TOS, where Shatner, Nimoy and later Kelley were the only ones given "starring" billing, and where every other character was given very little screentime and development. But I agree that not all characters on DS9 were "equal" in importance: if I were to name the leads in DS9, I'd name those three as well - Sisko, Kira, Odo - as they were the most connected to the show's themes and storylines and therefore got to be central to the proceedings and carry the storylines much more often than O'Brien, Jadzia or Bashir. I think that by emphasizing the "ensamble show" aspect of DS9, people are really saying that supporting characters on the show - including those with recurring guest star billing - got more development and depth than some of the supporting characters (including those that were billed as regulars, members of the main cast) got in other shows.

Worf! He's always getting the short end of the stick, and someone is always getting one over on him, you got to feel sorry for a guy movitated by honor always getting screwed. He didn't really come into his own intill he was reassigned to DS9.